1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector having a detachable pick-up cap.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors including pick-up means for facilitating picking up and positioning by a pick-up machine such as a vacuum suction nozzle or the like are well-known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,133 discloses such a connector with a pick-up cap. The pick-up cap comprises a flat cover plate and pairs of resilient legs descending downwardly from edges of the cover plate to engage sidewalls of the connector. The legs include main legs gripping outside of the sidewalls and auxiliary legs abutting against inner surfaces of the sidewalls. With this arrangement, each sidewall of the connector is, in effect, sandwiched between the main and auxiliary legs to be picked up via the force applied thereto by the legs while the pick-up cap is taken up by suction of a vacuum suction nozzle upon the flat cover plate thereof. Then the connector is transferred to a printed circuit board (PCB) and positioning them in a preselected position for soldering. The pick-up cap remains in place upon the connector until after it is joined to the PCB by soldering. So, the sidewalls of the connector are under the gripping force applied by the legs of the pick-up cap all the while during passing through the reflow vessel for soldering. As the auxiliary legs punched out of the main legs are shorter than the main legs, the auxiliary legs and the main legs respectively abut against the sidewalls on their upper portions and lower portions. As a result, the main legs press the sidewalls slightly inwardly while the auxiliary legs press the sidewalls slightly outwardly, which may cause deformation or warpage of the connector on the sidewalls. If once such deformation or warpage occur, it will potentially result in misalignment and misengagment between the connector and its mating connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,617 discloses another conventional connector with a pick-up cap. The pick-up cap disclosed therein has two pairs of resilient legs each provided with a hook-like end to be forced into channel formed in sidewall of the connector. In the process of the resilient legs being forced into the channel, the hook-like ends thereof apply a force to the sidewalls, but that force is in a longitudinal direction along the sidewalls and will rarely cause deformation of the connector. Once the legs detained in the channels, the pick-up cap will not apply force to the sidewalls anymore, except a hooking force upwardly along the sidewalls when the pick-up cap is taken up by suction of a vacuum suction nozzle and the connector is hooked up by the pick-up cap. Thus the connector will rarely suffer deformation or warpage while passing through the reflow vessel for soldering. However, this kind of pick-up cap requires channels to be defined in sidewalls of the connector for its legs with hook-like ends, which not only complicates the machining procedure of the connector but also weakens the sidewalls of the connector.
Therefore, to overcome the disadvantages of the prior arts, an improved connector with a pick-up cap is desired.